Supreme Court confirms fourth death sentence in 2017

Another man was sentenced to death in the fall of 2017, in addition to the three persons earlier convicted during the year, Valery Kalinkovich, Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Court, said at a press conference in Minsk today.

His statement confirmed earlier reports by human rights defenders, who said that the death row in Minsk’s prison No. 1 holds another man, whose name was not known. The activists found out that the death verdict was announced on September 22.

“No one was concealing this death convict. The case was considered in an open trial, information about it was published in the public domain. Unfortunately, the man has committed his third murder, while serving a sentence for murder,” Kalinkovich said.

According to him, the convict’s name is Viktar Liotau. He murdered his cellmate in penal colony No. 13 in Hlybokaje.

Up to now, the human rights defenders were aware of six people sentenced to death and awaiting execution, including three people convicted in 2017. Some of them lost their appeals to the Supreme Court. These include Kiryl Kazachok who killed two of his own children in the winter of 2016 and Aliaksei Mikhalenia who was convicted of murdering his neighbors in March 2016. Two more are Ihar Hershankou and Siamion Berazhnoi, both sentenced to death in the ‘black realtors’ trial’.

In 2018, the Minsk City Court issued two death sentences to Minsk residents Aliaksandr Zhylnikau and Viachaslau Sukharka for the murder of a young couple in Minsk and a man in Kalodziščy. Now they have a right to file an appeal with the Supreme Court.